A TANK AWAY FROM TOLEDO Traverse City, Michigan May 16-18, 2010
We relaxed on an Old Mission Peninsula beach looking at the location where the film A Year in Mooring http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1536374/ (due to be released in 2011) was shot. The peninsula is an 18-mile-long, 2-mile-wide finger of land that divides Lake Michigan's Grand Traverse Bay. Grand Traverse Bay at its deepest point is 612 feet.. The trench, at the bottom of East Bay, is known especially by local fishermen as "The Cut", and provided a perfect winter storage system for canoes. When for many centuries in autumn, local Native Americans migrated to the Traverse City area for winter hunting, they stored their canoes by submerging them in the cut and floating them again in the spring. http://thewoodengarden.net/OURTOWNSHISTORY.html
Downtown, using advice from locals, we pressed a button on the parking meter to get 30 minutes free parking, We ate at The Cooks' House "local sustainable cuisine" http://thecookshouse.typepad.com/ and Phil's on Front Restaurant and Chocolate Bar
http://www.philsonfront.com/ (they make their own chocolates and the artwork on the walls depicts chocolate) and we shopped at Fogarelli's City Market & Wine Shop
http://www.folgarellis.net/products.php Our special treat was to see West Bay Cottage Furnishings, a shop recently opened in Old Town where stores end and residences begin. The store, owned by ex-Toledoan Amy Eaton, features "carefully selected, artfully renewed" furniture. http://www.wbcottagefurnishings.com/index.aspx We returned home with Michigan bounty: dark sweet cherry preserves, raspberry preserves and morel mushrooms.

EPA Adds More Than 6,300 Chemicals and 3,800 Chemical Facilities to Public Database
News release: "The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has added more than 6,300 chemicals and 3,800 chemical facilities regulated under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) to a public database called Envirofacts...The Envirofacts database is EPA’s single point of access on the Internet for information about environmental activities that may affect air, water and land in the U.S and provides tools for analyzing the data. It includes facility name and address information, aerial image of the facility and surrounding area, map location of the facility, and links to other EPA information on the facility, such as EPA’s inspection and compliance reports that are available through the Enforcement Compliance History Online (ECHO) database. EPA is also adding historic facility information for another 2,500 facilities."

An Investigation into Bisphenol A in Canned Foods
Follow up to previous postings on Bisphenol A , this News release: "Senator Dianne Feinstein stood with environmental health advocates today on Capitol Hill to release a new report that demonstrates alarming levels of bisphenol A (BPA) in common canned foods. BPA is a synthetic sex hormone and exposure to low doses has been linked to abnormal behavior, diabetes and heart disease, infertility, developmental and reproductive harm, and obesity, which raises the risk of early puberty, a known risk factor for breast cancer. Senator Feinstein has introduced legislation that would ban BPA in cans, in addition to other food and beverage containers. The Senator is hopeful that the Food Safety Act will include language that protects consumers from BPA exposure. “We found in our analysis that if someone is eating just one meal with at least one canned food product, their levels of BPA are as much as those that have been shown to cause health effects in laboratory animal studies,” says Bobbi Chase Wilding of Clean New York, co-author, of No Silver Lining, An Investigation Into Bisphenol A in Canned Foods, by The National Workgroup for Safe Markets, a coalition of U.S. public health- and environmental health-focused organizations. “Six states have taken crucial first steps this year to get this hormone mimicking chemical out of our children’s food, but this report shows that there is much more to be done. Senator Feinstein’s bill will protect much more of our food from this toxic contamination,” said U.S. Public Interest Research Group Public Health Advocate Elizabeth Hitchcock..."Eating common canned foods is exposing consumers to levels of bisphenol A (BPA) equal to levels shown to cause health problems in laboratory animals, according to a new study released today by The National Work Group for Safe Markets, a coalition of public health and environmental health groups. The study, No Silver Lining, tested food from 50 cans from 19 US states and one Canadian province for BPA contamination. Over 90% of the cans tested had detectable levels of BPA, some at higher levels than have been detected in previous studies. The canned foods tested were brand name fish, fruits, vegetables, beans, soups, tomato products, sodas, and milks, which together represent “real-life” meal options for a wide range of North American consumers. The cans were purchased from retail stores and were chosen from report participants’ pantry shelves, and sent to an independent laboratory for testing. One can of DelMonte green beans had the highest levels of BPA ever found in canned food, at 1,140 parts per billion."

Ockham's razor or Occam's razor (OK-ehmz RAY-zuhr) noun
The maxim that the simplest of explanations is more likely to be correct.
After William of Ockham (c. 1288-1348), a logician and theologian, who is credited with the idea.
Morton's fork (MOR-tuhns fork) noun
A situation involving choice between two equally undesirable outcomes.
After John Morton (c. 1420-1500), archbishop of Canterbury, who was tax collector for the English King Henry VII. To him is attributed Morton's fork, a neat argument for collecting taxes from everyone: those living in luxury obviously had money to spare and those living frugally must have accumulated savings to be able to pay.
Achilles' heel (uh-KIL-eez heel) noun
A seemingly small but critical weakness in an otherwise strong position.
After Achilles, a hero in the Greek mythology. When Achilles was a baby, his mother Thetis dipped him into the magical river Styx to make him immortal. She held him by the heel which remained untouched by the water and became his weak point. He was killed when the Trojan king Paris shot an arrow that pierced his one vulnerable spot: his heel. After him, the tendon in the lower back of the ankle is also known as the Achilles tendon.
Hobson's choice (HOB-sonz chois) noun
An apparently free choice that offers no real alternative: take it or leave it.
After Thomas Hobson (1544?-1630), English keeper of a livery stable, from his requirement that customers take either the horse nearest the stable door or none. Hobson had some 40 animals in his rent-a-horse business and a straightforward system: a returning horse goes to the end of the line, and the horse at the top of the line gets to serve next. He had good intentions -- rotating horses so his steeds received good rest and equal wear.
St. Elmo's fire (saynt EL-mohz fyr) noun
An electrical discharge visible at the surface of a conductor, as a ship's mast or an airplane's wing.
After St. Erasmus (mispronounced as Elmo by sailors) who is regarded as the patron saint of sailors and an electrical discharge on the mast of a ship is believed to be a sign of his protection. This phenomenon of corona discharge is also called St. Elmo's light. A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg